BNP-Jamaat helped TMC win 2011 poll, latter returning favour now: BJP

Kolkata, Nov 12: The BJP on Tuesday hit out at the Trinamool Congress (TMC), saying the latter had a tacit understanding with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its alliance partner, the Jamaat-e-Islami, before the assembly election of 2011. The TMC dethroned the 34-year-old regime of the Left Front to come to power in that election.

BJP National Secretary and Bengal in-charge Siddharth Nath Singh said media reports in Bangladesh said the TMC had entered in a secret alliance with the BNP and Jamaat before the 2011 polls and that Jamaat actively backed the TMC win the election.

Singh said as per the agreement, the BNP and Jamaat would help the TMC in the border districts of Bengal while the latter would help the Bangladeshi outfits against the ruling Awami League. Singh said the TMC had won 32 of the 75 assembly seats along the Bengal-Bangladesh border while its alliance partner Congress won 13. Funds from Saradha chit fund were transferred through TMC leaders ato Bangladesh, Singh said.

A Rajya Sabha MP of the TMC was recently accused of maintaining links with the Jamaat and transferring funds for anti-Bangladesh activities.

He also questioned whether the agreements with the Bangladeshi outfits made Mamata Banerjee oppose the Teesta Water Sharing treaty with Dhaka in 2011. The BJP leader suspected that the Bengal chief minister's decision to pull out of the delegation led by former prime minister Manmohan Singh was done at the behest of the BNP-Jamaat alliance.

The TMC and Congress slammed Singh, saying he was making up stories. Did the people of Bengladesh vote during the 2011 election, asked the Congress.